


kiss me on the mouth (please don't bite)

by haatorii



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Aged Up Percy Jackson Character(s), Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Ambiguous Age, Barebacking, Bianca di Angelo - Freeform, Explicit Sexual Content, Hazel Levesque - Freeform, LOL but not really, M/M, Mentions of Percy Jackson - Freeform, Michael Yew - Freeform, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano - Freeform, Rimming, Rough Sex, Werewolf Will Solace, Werewolf!Will Solace, aged-up nico di angelo, aged-up will solace, austin lake - Freeform, background hazel leveseque/frank zhang, but everyone is at least late-20s to early-mid 30s, it's like one sentence, kayla knowles - Freeform, mentions of Annabeth Chase - Freeform, mentions of breeding kink?, mortal nico di angelo, nico has an ambigous job because idk what ppl with business degree do, there's a little bit of blood but not graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:01:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29106747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haatorii/pseuds/haatorii
Summary: “You want some more?” He asks. The dog rises from its feet, frightening him in the process because fuck this dog is really fucking huge. The only dog he knows with the height closest to this is a Great Dane. But Great Danes don’t have fluffy fur and two rows of razor-sharp teeth.It walks to Nico, dwarfing him in his crouched form, and sits with its tongue out, dripping saliva on the sidewalk, waiting for him to hand over the other two hotdogs. Nico hastily unwraps the other two and puts them by its feet. The dog-wolf makes a sound behind its throat and devours the meat and buns. It looks at Nico again, waiting for him to put more food in front of it but all he has now are the bottled water and a small pack of gummy bears. “Fuck, I’m all out. All I have are gummy bears.”
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 14
Kudos: 90





	kiss me on the mouth (please don't bite)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my birthday gift to Nico. Happy birthday, bb. I love you so much xx
> 
> You know my disclaimer 🤪 aha  
> but seriously, this is unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine. if u see any plot holes, no u don't. if u see any grammatical errors, please tell me so I could change it lol thanks
> 
> This fic was inspired by Lady Gaga's Monster but the title came from Troye Sivan's Bite. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Nico, like many other adults in this time and age, is not great with people.

With his many hang-ups, unusual interests, and unsettling proclivity to the macabre, there aren’t many people who have the patience to include him in things. Not even his co-workers of 10+ years. They know and respect him, yes, but people tend to do that when one is the department supervisor. Even his superiors don’t acknowledge him that much, they only do when it’s time to turn in the monthly reports and even then it’s just a requisite email, minimizing their interaction with him even more. 

Needless to say, it’s a lonely life. But he’s been living like this for most of his life that he doesn’t care anymore. You can’t miss what you never had and all that.

Although nobody calls him for drinks every Friday, he’s not some friendless recluse as much as his co-workers might think. He receives at least eight phone calls every month; five from his sisters who are living in different parts of the country with their respective husbands, and the rest from his childhood friends whom he met in those two strange summer camps he attended as a preteen.

Plus, Reyna flies to him from time to time. Just like today.

Nico isn’t exactly certain what Reyna’s job really is. All he knows is that it involves people, motivating them, _probably_ leading them into battle and winning.

But Reyna is running late, which she has never done before. Something must’ve happened at her motivational camp. 

**Nico di Angelo**   
Where are you?

 **Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano** **  
**Sorry. Something happened at work.  
I’m gonna be late for a few minutes.

 **Nico di Angelo**   
Okay, take your time. I’m still at home.

He’s not, he’s been sitting inside his car under the streetlight in front of the bar they’re supposed to go. 

Nico tosses his phone on the passenger seat, sighs, and waits.

An hour later and Reyna is still nowhere to be seen. He reaches for his phone and texts Reyna to ask if she’s on her way. Nico unlocks his phone eagerly when a reply comes five minutes later.

 **Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano** **  
**Sorry for bailing on you. Something  
terrible is happening at work. They need me back   
so I’m flying in a few hours. I’ll come back   
next week and make it up to you, I promise.

 **Nico di Angelo**   
It’s okay. You don’t have to.   
Fly safe.

 **Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano** **  
**Thank you.  
Sorry for bailing again. Enjoy the   
night. 

Not gonna happen, he thinks. All his plans are flushed down the toilet. Now, he only has two choices; go home and sleep early, or tough it up, walk inside, and have a drink. After minutes of deliberation, he chooses the latter.

Nico parks his car and heads inside.

The moment he enters the heavy doors, Nico’s nose is hit with the sharp combination of cheap cologne, sweat, fried food, and whatever it is that’s making his throat complain. He huffs a breath a couple of times before his olfactory sense stops giving a fuck for the night and makes him get used to the repulsive smell. He wipes the sweat in the back of his neck with a neatly-pressed handkerchief.

Thirty minutes and two beers in, the place becomes bearable. In fact, it’s not all that terrible. Sure, it’s got teenagers and young professionals with their shirts off, grinding with the closest person but who never did that when they were young? (Nico didn’t, but it’s because bars were not his scene) There are a few people who looked more like his age in one of the booths and he feels a pang of sadness inside him because here he is, on a Friday night, drinking alone. He can’t even convince one of his sisters to come to visit him. One person bails and his whole plan gets shot to shit. Having friends fewer than his fingers in one hand is certainly not cool as people say it would be.

The thing is Nico isn’t that weird. He watches horror movies, yes. He likes reading about serial killers and visiting graves of certain celebrities and some personalities, yes. But _everyone does that._ He could think of a few people from his high school that would _kill_ to do what he’s doing in his spare time. But he guesses that’s what happens to ‘weird’ kids who were too angry and too absorbed in their own worlds as kids; they become angry teenagers who become perpetually pissed off adults who snap at co-workers who _can’t fucking do their jobs right. Jesus fucking Christ, Marcus, how the fuck did you get this job? You can’t even spell ‘myocardinate’ correctly!_

He stays for another 45 minutes before downing his drink and making his way out the door.

It’s chilly when he gets out. Too chilly. He rushes to his car, sits inside, and wills the dizziness from his drinks to disappear so he can drive home and sleep his disappointment away.

Reyna’s visit is the only non-work related plan he has so forgive him if he’s a little upset. 

They were supposed to get drunk, update each other with their lives, and eat an insane amount of deep-fried foods until they’re sober enough to drive. Instead, he’s here in his car freezing his ass off and waiting for the buzz to disappear.

Then he notices it by the bus stop. A dog… sort of. It’s huge and has light brown fur. It reminds him of a Golden Retriever, only deeper in color and huge as fuck. It’s insane how huge it is even from across the street where he is parked. A guy, definitely from the bar where he’s from, passes by and almost gets run over by a car after jumping off the sidewalk when it starts wagging its tail. How did he not see the fucking dog? It’s literally just there.

A couple more strangers pass by the dog and Nico is getting more and more frustrated by the passing minutes. How can all these people be heartless? He’s probably just begging for food. How hard is it to buy a hotdog from the nearby store and give it to the dog? For fuck’s sake, the dog just needs a scratch and a warm meal! 

With the last bits of intoxication in his system, he gets out of his car and walks to the bodega. The huge ass dog probably notices the movement from across the street because it wags its tail again and watches him with its snout on his paws. Nico buys a footlong and two regular hotdogs (the dog might want some more), water (for him), and some gummy bears (also for him). He pays the bored teenager behind the counter and crosses the street to the beast.

The dog’s ears twitch when he’s close enough. It raises its head when he’s about a few feet away, ears perking up and sniffing the air. It wags its tail faster when he hears the crinkling of the wax papers. Nico crouches down a good two feet away from it just in case it finds him too weird to interact to. “Here you go,” Nico whispers, unwrapping the hotdog and placing it near its feet with the wax paper acting as a plate. The huge ass dog wolfs it down in two bites. Okay, alarming since that was the footlong but nevermind, he’s probably just really hungry. 

“You want some more?” He asks. The dog rises from its feet, frightening him in the process because _fuck_ this dog is really fucking _huge._ The only dog he knows with the height closest to this is a Great Dane. But Great Danes don’t have fluffy fur and two rows of razor-sharp teeth.

It walks to Nico, dwarfing him in his crouched form, and sits with its tongue out, dripping saliva on the sidewalk, waiting for him to hand over the other two hotdogs. Nico hastily unwraps the other two and puts them by its feet. The wolf makes a sound behind its throat and devours the meat and buns. It looks at Nico again, waiting for him to put more food in front of it but all he has now are the bottled water and a small pack of gummy bears. “Fuck, I’m all out. All I have are gummy bears.”

Of course the dog doesn’t understand. It whines and stares at him with its watery, bright blue eyes and Nico probably hallucinates the pouting lips but it looks so sad. Maybe it needs scratches? That’s probably it. It’s done eating maybe it won’t whine anymore after he’s given ear scratches.

Nico slowly extends his hand for the dog to sniff, making sure he isn’t looking at the dog’s eyes in case it mistakes his advances as aggression. He learned that the hard way when they got their first pet as kids. If someone looks hard enough, they could still see the bite marks on Nico’s arm. It used to be one of his greatest insecurities growing up. But it faded and now he can barely find it in his skin. He loved that dog though, immensely. He cried like a fucking baby when she died.

The humongous dog sniffs his hand a little and bumps his head to it after. Nico lets out a relieved laugh and starts to pet it. It licks his hand, leaving slobber between his fingers and palm. Nico grimaces and wipes the saliva on the dog’s filthy fur. “Ew.”

A few fluffs of white lands on the dog’s head from somewhere. He brushes it off with his _cleaner_ hand and it dissolves right off. Shit. He looks up at the night sky and there it is--snow. His brain catches up with the weather and he shudders. He is severely underdressed for the weather; a thin long-sleeved shirt, black slacks, and dark brown wingtip shoes. He looks like a shady guy in a classy bar waiting for a woman to get drunk enough before taking her home. But he has sobered up, he thinks. And it’s getting late so he has to go home. He gives the dog one last scratch behind its ear before standing up and going back to his car. The dog whines high as he crosses the street and it takes almost everything inside him not to look back and haul it (him?) with him. He starts his car and gives one last glance on his side mirror before pulling away from the curb. The dog is on all fours, wagging its tail and waiting for him to come back.

Nico comes back the next day with an aluminum bowl and a single serving of dog food. He still has no idea if the dog from last night was a Great Dane or a… wolf so he’s possibly putting its health in jeopardy by giving it dog food. Can wolves eat dog food? (if it’s even a wolf). He’s also putting his life in jeopardy by not reporting the fuck-ass dog to the authorities. If it really was a wolf then he should report it, right? What if a rabid dog bites it? It could spread rabies to other strays and they might start attacking people. Reporting it would be the best course of action. That’s what a good citizen would do. But if he does that and the cops bring the ‘Great Dane’ to the shelter, who’s going to make sure that it’s a no-kill shelter? There are only 3 shelters in the area that are certified no-kill, he can’t take those chances. That dog is too huge and too scary to be adopted. No family would take him in, especially if they have little kids. 

Nico starts whistling, calling the dog in hopes it would reveal itself from behind the dumpster or the building but nothing. He taps his thigh. Still nothing. He then actively looks for it; peeking behind the dumpster, lifting boxes after boxes just in case it’s sleeping under them, even stepping over rotten vegetables and rummaging the piles of plastic dripping garbage juice to see if it is there. The smell is _revolting._ Nico nearly gags.

“Hey, man, you okay? You lost something?” A man behind Nico asks. He’s too busy dodging garbage juice to face the man.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.” He answers, kicking a paper stuck under his shoe. He braces himself against the filthy concrete wall and rubs his sole on the rough side. It still won’t come off.

“I’ve been watching you for a while now. You seem like you lost something. I can help if you want.” This guy is persistent. Nico said he’s fine, what more does he want?!

Nico wipes his sticky hands on his pants. He hopes the pungent smell of it will not stick to his pants. “Dude, that’s creepy, and I told you I’m fine. I thought I just saw something behind the dumpster. Get off my dick.” He jumps over the trash to face the man.

The man is… attractive. Hot. He’s tall, muscular but not too bulky, like he’s body-conscious but not a total gym rat. Curly golden hair under his beanie, tanned face, fading freckles across the bridge of his nose, insanely blue eyes, and he’s dressed in jeans and an old band tee inside his hoodie. He looks the kind of guy you’d never forget should you see him in a coffee shop. And goddamn he’s just _big,_ not exactly like Hazel’s husband Frank big, but big enough to crush Nico under him in bed. For fuck’s sake, he only reaches the man’s neck. 

“Okay, okay. I won’t stick my nose anymore after you answer my question: are you looking for a dog?” The tall stranger nods at the dog bowl and dog food at his feet. Nico hesitantly nods.

“I saw a dog around here last night. Thought I’d see him again.”

“You did? Me too! This tall,” he raises a hand to his rib “hairy, sharp teeth” he grins “and a sweetheart?”

“Yeah. Sounds about right. I dunno about the sweetheart part though.”

“Nah, he is. He’s harmless, trust me.” The easy smile from the stranger directed at him makes him want to smile. This is the longest conversation he’s had with a stranger. He feels surprisingly light, his irritation melting away like candy floss in water. He finds himself smiling a little bit.

The stranger extends his hand to him, he almost stumbles back in surprise. “Easy, easy.” The stranger chuckles. “I’m Will.”

Nico stares at his hand, then at his beautiful face, then back again at his hand. The sound of wings flapping behind him breaks his trance and he instantly takes Will’s hand. “Nico.”

“Hi, Nico.” Will gives firm shakes, he thinks. He scrunches his nose. “You wanna wash your hands?” Nico snatches his hand away as if burned. He feels his ears and cheeks get warm so he looks down at the bowl and frowns. So much for being confident. 

“Oh no, I’m sorry! I don’t mean you have dirty hands. I was asking because if you wanna clean yourself, uh, I mean wash your… hands? God, fuck, I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant! I think you’re clean and not filthy at all! Oh god!” Will pulls his beanie over his face and groans. Nico can’t help but crack a smile. “I understand.”

Will lifted the beanie a little bit, revealing a dimpled smile. It’s adorable. “You can wash your hands in The Company.” He pointed to his left.

“It’s okay, I have wet wipes and a hand sanitizer in my car,” Nico says.

“Oh, alright.”

The dog clearly isn’t in the alley so he doesn’t have any reason to be here anymore. Nico shifts in his feet, thinking of acceptable excuses so he could run to his car and drive away.

“I, uh, I have to go.” He says instead, not elaborating.

“Uh-huh.” Will moves to the side. “Nice to meetcha, Nico! See you around!”

Nico gives him one last look and a small smile then speeds to his car. He yanks it open and turns the ignition and drives away.

Nico doesn’t stop to look for the dog again, but he stops by every now and then and leaves dog food and water in the bowls he’s set up. It‘s always empty before he refills it so it means The Dog or other strays are eating it. Presumably. Why else would it be empty, right? It’s not like strangers are purposely stopping by to empty the bowl in the trash. That’s absurd. And he likes to think he’s doing his part in helping the community by feeding what the local animal orgs can’t rescue. This way they won’t terrorize the neighborhood anymore.

Will catches him four times. He always invites Nico for a drink at The Company but he always declines with a clipped ‘No, thank you. I’m fine.’

  
  


Nico goes on with his life; checking, double-checking, _triple-checking_ his co-worker’s reports, yelling at them for carelessly mislabeling the files that could take them weeks of paperwork to make right, going home in his quiet apartment, taking calls from his sisters, sleep, wake up, and then back again to checking, double-checking, and triple-checking his co-worker’s reports. It’s a never-ending cycle of making sure nobody fucks up and he is fucking sick of it all.

He is so fucking tired. And how fucking sad is it that the only thing giving a little bit of _spice_ in his life right now is the fucking mutt that’s probably halfway the next town already.

Nico braced himself for disappointment the moment he drove out of their company’s underground basement, but his mood gives a 180 when he sees Will sitting at the bus stop with his fine body wrapped up in what must have been four layers of clothing and a beanie, rubbing his hands together, cold and probably waiting for a miracle.

“What are you doing here?” Nico asks as he approaches the graffiti-covered bus stop. “It’s cold out here.”

Will hisses through his teeth and blows a few puffs in his hand, trying to warm it. “I… was hoping… to s-see you,” he says, shivering. “I thought I m-might… invite y-you in. _Fuck.”_

“Go back inside, you’ll freeze yourself to death.”

“I hate the fucking cold.”

“Yeah, no shit. Come on.” He helps Will stand up. Nico removes his scarf and wraps it around Will’s neck. _“Ohh,”_ Will whimpers so softly that Nico almost doesn’t hear. 

“Hello?” Nico calls out when they open The Company’s doors. “Is anybody here?”

“Y-yeah. Charles and L-Lee are here.”

A man with brown hair steps into view and rushes to them. “Holy shit, what happened to you?”

“He was outside in the snow shivering like a dog.” Nico handed him over to the stranger like a child in custody weekend. “Keep him warm, okay?”

“Sure, man. Thanks.” The stranger turns to Will. “Now, what the fuck were you doing outside?! You know you don’t do well in the cold.”

Nico turns to go when Will calls him weakly. He turns back hesitantly. “L-let me buy y-you hot ch-chocolate for your trouble?” The man beside him rolls his eyes.

A million things are flying around Nico’s mind. He’s met Will a total of six times, should he finally accept the offer? Would it be weird if he declines? What if a cat has been eating the dog food? Isn’t dog food bad for them? It lacks taurus, tartarus, taurine or something that they need for their eyes. Is he unknowingly killing cats? Hot chocolate sounds good, actually. And a lot more. But Will is a stranger, and so is the brunet, and he doesn’t do well with strangers. He should decline.

“Thanks, but I have to go. My grocery is about to close. I ran out of milk this morning.” Stupid excuse but believable.

Will is visibly disappointed, he thinks, but doesn’t say anything. He gives Nico a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes and thanks him again for saving him from the cold. Nico feels his cheeks warming up. He says it’s ‘no biggie’ and turns his heels around. 

  
  


A few weeks later, Nico sees the dog again huddled in the corner of the bus stop sleeping. It’s been days since it last snowed but the air still stabs Nico’s face like small needles when he’s outside. But spring is almost here so the cold won’t stay for long.

He approaches it quietly, still afraid he might disturb it and lunge at him, and leaves a few meters between himself and the dog in case it gets spooked and tramples him. Then he whistles to wake it up. It wags its tail weakly and opens one eye when Nico gets close enough. It must’ve remembered his smell. The dog lifts its head when he crouches in front of it, uncurling its large body that has made itself as small as possible to preserve body heat.

“Hey, big guy,” Nico greets, patting its head and scratching its chin. “Are you cold? Do you want me to bring you something? A blanket, maybe? I have one in my trunk.”

The dog doesn’t reply but nuzzles its head to Nico’s palm. He scratches the patch of skin on the underside of its ear in response.

“You’re filthy.” He says, taking note of the knotted fur on its tail and the general sticky feeling of its coat.

He has to do something for this poor dog. It’s big, yeah, and he looks friendly enough despite the razor-sharp teeth. But all this… _largeness_ is not helping it have a home. It’s gonna die if he doesn’t do something. 

Humans are cruel beings to things they don’t understand. And one look at this creature could spark misunderstanding that would certainly get it in trouble.

He’s going to take this giant of a dog home, he decides.

He looks around him, looking for any signs of danger, then coaxes the large dog to stand up by scratching its chin again. Nico holds its shoulders and pushes it a little bit just so it can understand that it needs to start walking. He guides the dog as they cross the street to his car, and when they’re finally safe, he opens the door, lays the blanket on his seat, and helps the dog up in his car. The dog wags its filthy tail when Nico finally closes his door.

“You okay back there?” He still asks despite not expecting an answer. The dog lols its tongue and pants, still wagging its tail. “Okay, I’m assuming you are. Please don’t slobber over my seat. And don’t shit! Jesus, please don’t shit in my car.”

The huge dog barks once like it’s promising nothing so Nico drives away, speeding a little just in case the dog wants to shit.

Driving with the big ass dog was a piece of cake; it did not try to lunge at Nico nor piss on his leather seats. It didn’t even try to stand up when Nico craned his neck to check if it defecated or whatever the fuck dogs do inside a car. So yeah, driving with it on the back seat was a piece of cake. 

What’s not a piece of cake though is trying to smuggle the enormous dog inside his ‘Strictly No Pets Allowed’ apartment. It’s fucking discriminatory for sure, but he already paid the security deposit and signed the papers before the wrinkled prune of an owner informed him about the policy so he can’t do shit anymore. Well, he probably can but he was so sick of apartment hunting that he didn’t care anymore. That and his savings were dangerously low that time after being kicked out of his childhood home before he could even save enough.

Who knew his dad was a homophobic piece of shit?

The basement elevator is conveniently empty so going up is easy. He starts to sweat when he reaches the first floor, then the second, third. He lives on the 7th floor so the chances of someone seeing him with a panting dog practically between his legs is astronomically high. 

He breathes a huge fucking sigh of relief when he arrives at his floor without seeing anybody. What are the fucking odds, right?

“Let’s go! Go! Run!” He whispers harshly to the dog. The dog runs, much to Nico’s delight, and they stop in front of his unit. He quickly unlocks the door and ushers the dog inside. He locks the door behind him and turns on the lights. The dog immediately starts sniffing his stuff, familiarizing itself with its new surroundings. It darts from corner to corner, smelling everything it can get its nose on. Is it even proper to address the dog as ‘it’? ‘It’ doesn’t look like a child-eating clown so he could probably call the dog with a human pronoun?

Nico gets behind the dog and gently lifts ‘its’ tail. The dog quickly turns around to playfully bite his hand, like it’s embarrassed Nico tried to look at its genitals. He drops its tail but not before he can take a proper look. Yup, it’s got balls. It’s a he.

“Hey,” Nico kneels in front of the dog. It--no, he crowds Nico closer and bumps its--his forehead under Nico’s chin. “I have no idea what to call you so I’m just gonna start calling you ‘he’, okay? I don’t know if I can keep you but I’ll certainly try. I can’t have you living here unvaccinated though, but it’d be a bitch to sneak you out tomorrow for a visit to the vet, so I’m gonna have to plan that ahead. Maybe we can go on Saturday, yeah?” The dog doesn’t answer of course, so Nico ruffles its fur and heads to the kitchen for their dinner.

“I don’t have much but I have corned beef. You up to that?” The dog looks up at him with his insane blue eyes and cocks his head to the side. Nico wants to bite his nose off. “Keep looking at me like that and we won’t eat in time.” He drops his gaze to the floor. Smart boy. Nico bites his lip and grabs the chicken he’s been marinating since yesterday. He whips up a batter, dips the chicken strips, and fries it until it’s golden.

The dog is still familiarizing himself with his surroundings, then after deep consideration, it hops on his couch and rests his head on his paws. “Oh no,” Nico says. He rushes to the couch. “You have to go down, you can sleep on it when you’ve showered. You’re gonna dirty the pillows! I don’t have any spare, I just washed them!” The dog instantly gets off the couch and lies on the floor, whining while staring up at him with his blue eyes that seem to shine with unshed tears. Nico’s heart clenches. “Don’t look at me like that! You’re making me feel bad! I just told you to get off! Jesus, let me finish cooking so I could bathe you and you could sleep wherever the fuck you want” Nico storms back to the kitchen to finish his cooking.

When everything is gone (two cans of corned beef devoured, the chicken strips consumed, and plates soaked), Nico strips down to his boxers and pushes the filthy dog to his shower. The whole thing lasted for an hour and ended up with Nico taking a shower with the dog since he got soaked from head to toe when the damn dog shook off all the water. He grabs some clean rags (old, hole-ridden shirts that couldn’t be salvaged as pajama shirts anymore) and tries his best to dry the shivering dog. He ends up using his blow drier after 30 minutes of aggressive drying.

He lets the dog sleep beside him and it is the best damn sleep he’s ever gotten after moving from his apartment.

  
  


The dog follows him as he runs around his apartment, trying to tidy up and leave as much food and water as possible for the dog since he’d be gone the whole day. They have several deals closing in fast so he has to quadruple check everything his team produces today. Especially Marcus'. Fucking hell, please grow more brain cells, Marcus. You’re dumbing down the whole fucking team!

When the last dirty sock is thrown in the hamper, he turns and crouches in front of the (his?) dog. “I will be gone for the day, okay? And as much as I would like to come back for lunch, I can’t because I just know stupid fucking Marcus is going to fuck up his job again so I need you to please be quiet, yeah? Or else Old Hag Meg will know you’re here and she’s gonna violate countless laws just to see you get put down.” He rubs the skin under his ears and kisses his forehead. “Obviously I don’t want that to happen so,” he puts a finger over his lips, a ‘shh’ sign. “Hm? Great. I’m glad we had this conversation.” He rises to his feet and smoothes down his slacks. “If you want to shit or pee, I placed a basin there at the corner. I’m gonna swing by the pet store later for some cat sand since you can’t do your business outside.” He looks at his watch and Jesus, he really has to go. “Gotta go now. Bye!”

The dog wags his tail as Nico runs out of his apartment. He closes the door and doesn’t bother waiting for the elevator anymore. He’s going down so he’s fine with the stairs, he’s not gonna sweat that much anyway.

The basement is, again, surprisingly empty. He rushes to his car, starts the engine, and practically flies his car out of the parking lot.

Nico returns home at 7:30 in the evening with 5 kgs of cat sand in his arms and a very pissed off face, earning him weird looks from other tenants. Marcus predictably fucks up a contract, almost costing them an entire month’s work. He was _this_ close to reporting him to the nearest boss, but he changed his mind the last minute after giving Marcus another earful. If Marcus doesn’t start pulling his weight he’s going to start throwing hands.

Nico gropes for his keys the moment he steps out of the elevator doors. With the cat sand in his arms and the heavy messenger bag on his shoulders, he doesn’t have much room to rummage his pockets without putting down the sack, and he doesn’t wanna do that for some reason.

He drops the sack nonetheless when he sees his door slightly ajar.

Did he forget to close the door properly this morning? Did Old Hag Meg find his dog and called animal control? Did he maul some poor tenant and get shot by animal control? Where is his fucking dog? 

“Hey boy,” he whistles, calling for the dog. “Hey boy, where are you? Are you here?” Bad time for having a dog without a name. His heart pounds in his chest. His hands sweat. What if something bad happened to the dog? What if a tenant found him and he panicked and bit them? Fuck. He was supposed to bring him to the vet this Saturday! Fuck! “Hey boy, where are you?” another whistle. Nothing.

He searches the hallway for spots big enough for an enormous wolf-dog to hide. Nothing. He opens the fire exit. Nothing. He tries listening through the doors of his neighbors. Most of them aren’t home so he tries their doorknobs. Nothing. They’re all locked. 

The dog is gone.

Slipped into the shadows, put down by his crazy landlord, flew away. Who fucking knows at this point.

He sags in front of his apartment, too tired to even bring himself inside to have a breakdown in peace. 

Then he sees it, the blinking red light of one of the floor’s _many_ CCTV cameras. If he left the door ajar, Old Hag Meg must’ve seen his dog slip out. She must have called the animal control to him. She must have gotten him put down.

He needs to see the footage. He should go to Old Hag Megaera to make sure she never did anything to his dog. Because if anything happens to him, Nico will sue the fuck out of this building and he _will_ win. He had spent _years_ gathering dirt and photographing every patch of mold, every rotting wood, every water stain on the ceiling, and all the shit that definitely aren’t up to code in this building. If Nico gives them to the City Hall, Old Hag Meg will lose _everything._

Fuck being kind to the elderly, especially to that sack of wet, putrid straws. Nico lost all respect the moment he saw her evicting his downstairs neighbor for not paying rent on time. For fuck’s sake, that day, the man just lost his daughter in a car crash that earned them a 2-month stint at the hospital. They lost all their savings and all of their properties and she _knew_ about it. They all chipped in for some cash to help him with the medical bills! Literally all she had to do was agree when he pleaded to wait at least a month, just so he could find a job and mourn and sort his life back in order, maybe give her condolences as well but she did _neither._ The sea witch did not agree because deep-sea creatures don’t have souls. Instead, she berated him and threw a shoe at him, hitting the man in the head. Nico’s blood boiled but she was on her way back to the elevator when Nico’s feet finally allowed him to move. 

He offered the guy some help but he said he’s got some relative’s couch he could crash on for a couple of weeks, just until he could stand on his own two feet. Nico skipped work that day to help him move his stuff out, and right before the man stepped out of his car, he wrote him a check to ‘jumpstart whatever he wants to do’. He gave him a tight hug, even though he protested, and bid goodbye with a smile on his face and a look in his eyes that Nico could only describe as ‘hope’.

That was four years ago, and from what he last heard, he’s now running his small but growing company. The man, Isaac, made Nico his first investor so he guesses he’s now got enough money for his retirement fund.

But the fucking dog.

Nico stands up, brushing dirt from his butt then storms to Old Hag Meg’s unit. He pounds the door with his fist. The yapping sound of her own hypocrisy, her Pomeranian, can be heard through the door. Stupid toy dogs. Nico _loathes_ that fucking dog. Always growling and barking. And Alecto? Who fucking names their dog _Alecto_ ?! Pretentious landlords, that’s who! But the name suits her. Alecto. Unceasing in Anger. Yeah, he did his research. She obviously did her research too because why the fuck would she call her dog _Alecto_ if it isn’t to match with her own dumb fucking name? Megaera and Alecto. Two of the fucking Furies. One more and she’d complete the fucking set.

Nico pounds on her door one more time.

“Hold your horses, goddammit! Stupid kids, I heard you the first fucking time! I’m old, not deaf!” She screams from inside. Nico furrows his brows more.

The sound of several locks unlatching then the door opens a crack. Nico pushes it open but a chain prevents him from opening it further. He scowls at her. "Did you spread your large bony wings today and terrorized some poor kids?"

"Good to see you too, Mr. di Angelo, what brings you to my doorstep today?"

"Every tenant knows this is your lair, stop pretending to have a home when all you have in there is a cold, musty cave with wriggling maggots by your cot as a snack."

"Charming as always. What do you want, Mr. di Angelo? Rent isn't due until the 30th."

He doesn't want to tell her about the dog (in case she knew jackshit), he has to catch her in a lie.

"My floor smells funky," he lies, his elbow braced on the door frame. "Did your hellspawn happen to wander in my hall and dispersed her spores in the air?"

"Not that I know of, no. Alecto has been here the whole day. She even shit the carpet." Old Hag Meg replies without a thought, like it’s a regular occurrence in her household. Or swamp. Wherever a bitch lives.

But she’s telling the truth, he’s sure of it, which is disappointing. Over the years of working in a soul-draining environment where a simple mistake could cost someone’s week-long sleep and maybe sanity, his subordinates had grown a whole new portion of their brain specifically for lying. And they were good at it. Which is how he got so good at spotting liars. He’d once heard a junior administrator lie her way out of the confrontation when her boyfriend literally caught her tits out in her office with an intern. 

Ahh, too bad he can’t take that periwinkle-colored envelope out in his safe. He's been itching to show that to the right people for quite some time now.

Before anybody asks, there are only a few reasons why he chose to stay in this hellhole of a complex even after several promotions; 1) it’s not as expensive as other apartments, 2) the neighbors are surprisingly okay, 3) it’s close to his office, and 4) he _does not_ trust moving companies (he doesn’t have any friends to bribe to help him move). He’s heard enough horror stories of moving companies misplacing stuff or breaking expensive shit that he has permanently blocked them from his mind.

“I don’t believe you. I wanna see the tapes.” He says. Old Hag Meg narrows her eyes at him, the bags under her eyes shiny from under the artificial lights of her unit. She looks like she’s about to cry but Nico knows it’s just an old people thing. His eyes gravitate to the huge gunk in the middle corner of her eye. Caruncle, his ophthalmologist called it once. The word never left his mind after that, and he’s been searching for opportunities to use the word ever since. Nico clenched his ass in disgust.

Old Hag Meg rolls her eyes and says, “Alright.” She closes the door and removes the chain. Nico comes in with his hands in his pocket.

This isn’t Nico’s first time to step inside Old Hag Meg’s unit(lair). He’s probably been here a couple of times already but he literally forgets what it looks like every time he’s already a floor down.

Another tenant, an over-zealous Christian lady, only a couple of steps shy of being the Margaret White-type, described her home as ‘the bedchamber of the devil’.

If that doesn’t tell anyone anything about her as a person, then Nico doesn’t know what else could.

He follows her to a smaller room with a couple of monitors, all displaying the hallways of different floors. His floor, seventh, is located at the far right of the array of screens. “Start at eight-thirty this morning.” Old Hag Meg huffs a breath and clicks a few buttons. His room is two doors down from the camera so he doesn’t have to squint very hard to see his unit.

Nothing remarkable happens between 8:30 to 2:15 PM, just a couple of people going in and out of their rooms. One of the twins living in the apartment next to his brings home a couple of pizza boxes, that La Rue girl from down the hall pulls out a wicked-looking hunting knife before sheathing it again, then a guy... comes out of his apartment?

“Go back at one in the afternoon,” he tells Old Had Meg, trying hard to make it seem like nothing is out of the ordinary. She grunts impatiently but does what he says.

He counts the doors, making sure the guy did come out of his apartment. 

2:16 PM, the same guy comes out of his unit.

Nico sees Old Hag Meg eye him from his peripherals. “Ooh, someone’s been taking home men.” She cackles then coughs violently when a spit blocks her airway for a bit. “Give it up, Mr. di Angelo, you can’t find anything that ties my Alecto to whatever your problem is. Just solve it yourself.”

“You’re the landlord, you should be taking care of this shit.”

“I’m an old lady, I can’t do shit.”

“We both know you have plenty of other meatsuits in your closet you can use. This place reeks of sulfur and old lady smell. Burn this skin and wear something else.”

She cackles then coughs again, phlegm catching her throat. Nico’s face twists in disgust. “Imma get out of your hair before you infect me with whatever shit you have.” He says in a hurry before practically running away from his landlord’s home.

Who the fuck was that guy? How the fuck did he get inside his apartment? Did he let the dog go before he broke in? Did he kill the fucking dog? The stranger was wearing the largest hoodie and the only sweatpants he had. If his hunch is correct, the hoodie the stranger was wearing was the one he stole from an ex and the sweatpants were Frank’s from that time he slept at Nico’s during a business trip.

He quickly opens his closet when he gets to his bedroom.

Yup, he stole Rory’s hoodie and Frank’s sweatpants alright.

He looks around for missing stuff but aside from the porkchop he’s been saving for tonight, and a couple of disarranged items, nothing else is missing.

The dog food in the corner is untouched, but a couple of dishes are in the dishwasher.

Whoever that stranger was, he made sure that the dog was taken care of (killed, thrown out of the window, whatever) before eating Nico’s food, doing chores, and stealing his clothes. 

Fuckin’ weirdo.

He takes his phone out from his messenger bag and punches in a reminder to call the locksmith tomorrow.

  
  


If the gigantic dog is still alive, Nico doesn’t see any proof of it. Every day, for three months, he goes all the way to the other side of town to see if the dog is at the bus stop and every day he goes home disappointed.

One day though, he sees something he thinks is the dog, but it’s only Will in a huge fluffy gray-white suit. No, a fursuit. One of his nieces showed him a picture the last time he called Bianca. He’s rummaging the dumpster in the alley, just like he did the first time he met Will.

Nico honks his horn. “Hey, what are you doing?” He asks.

“Oh, hi!” Will kicks something away from the light. “Didn’t see you there. Long time no see!”

“You’re making your fursuit dirty,” Nico says dryly.

“No, it’s fine. I have… spare,” Will mutters something to himself that Nico doesn’t hear. “I mean I’m gonna change out of this later. I’m not wearing this home.”

Nico slowly nods his head, not quite understanding what’s happening but not sure if he should ask more questions. “Cool. I’ll leave you up to your business then. Good night.” He answers and starts to drive away.

“Wait!” Will screams behind him. He’s still by the dumpster but all the shit he’s gathering earlier is now on the floor. “You wanna head inside and have a drink?” He points to The Company behind.

Nico sticks out his head to see the status of the bar. There are only a few cars in the parking spaces. Understandable since it’s only 7:30 PM on a Thursday. Will looks at him expectantly.

Should he finally give in and accept his offer? This is the seventh time he’s asked him. Nah, he’s just being polite.

“Next time,” he answers. “I have to catch something. My grocery--”

“Is about to close, yes I know. Come on, please? One drink. It doesn’t have to be alcoholic. That’s all I ask.” Will pleads.

This is new. Will has never insisted before. Usually when Nico declines he just smiles and lets him go.

Nico regards The Company through his side mirrors. It’s relatively quiet. Surely nothing bad will happen, right? Will won’t stab him and steal his kidneys while he bleeds to death in a ditch. Or sneakily inject him with drugs using filthy needles.

He subtly looks around. There are a couple of cameras around. He can park his car under one to make sure they catch him going inside with a stranger. Yes, he can do that. Normally he does not like getting filmed or photographed, privacy reasons of course, but this is a special case.

Nico parks his car under the closest street cam and follows Will to the bar, his fursuit’s tail bouncing behind him.

Nico doesn’t know what to expect, but certainly not booths in the middle of the dance floor and the scent of fried foods wafting from the kitchen. A band covering Mariah Carey’s Always Be My Baby plays on the makeshift stage in front of the place instead of club music blaring from the speakers strategically placed above. The lights are also brighter compared to the first time he was here.

When did The Company become a dive bar?

Distracted by the scene in front of him, Nico doesn’t notice Will stopping. He rubs his nose when he hits himself on Will’s fluffy chest.

“What can I getcha?” Will asks.

“When did this place become a dive bar?”

“Ah, this? We only do the club thing thrice a month since it’s too much work. It’s my cousin’s idea so he facilitates that one.” Nico slowly nods his head while still looking around. “So, what can I getcha?” Will ushers Nico to an empty booth by the bar.

“Uh, burger and fries?”

“Uh-huh,”

“And coke, please.”

“That all? Nothing specific?”

“Uh-huh,”

“Sweet. Your food’ll be here in a minute.” Will gives Nico a flash of smile then waddles to what he presumes is the kitchen. 

Nico drums his fingers on the table. The band is now covering Goo Goo Dolls’ Iris. Seems like it’s late 90’s to early 2000’s Emo Music Night. 

Will comes back five minutes later, already changed but still wearing the feet of his fursuit and holding Nico’s burger and fries, his hair tied up his head like a curly-haired Shih Tzu. His (tight!!) white v-neck shirt fits him well. “Here you go,” he says, placing the tray in front of him. “Dig in!” He sits in front of Nico and rests his chin on his palms, waiting for Nico to try the food. A bit strange for someone with Will’s physique to behave like that but whatever. He’s not judging.

Nico consciously picks up the burger, subtly sniffs it, and takes a huge bite. He’s hungry and the burger tastes good. He hums appreciatively. “Ish ish goo,” he says, chewing on the mouthful of meat, buns, lettuce, tomato, and cheese. He chews fast then swallows. “This is good,” he repeats. “I’ve never had a burger like this before.”

“Really?” Will asks. “Where do you get your burger?”

“McDonald’s.”

“Oof,” Will grimaced. “That’s not great. Those aren’t burgers, those are preservatives in the shape of a burger. Lemme ask you, have you actually seen a Big Mac get bad?”

Nico cover’s his mouth while chewing. This burger is insanely good. He dabs the corner of his mouth with a paper towel. He shakes his head then takes a sip of his drink. “Can’t say I have. They don’t go bad with me.”

“Oh man, you’ll be _horrified,”_ Will pulls out a phone from his pocket and fiddles with it. “Here, look.” It’s a video of a 30-day experiment involving different burgers from different chain restaurants. Nico almost chokes when he sees McDonald’s burger after 30 days of exposure. 

“Good God,” he says, gulping his drink. 

“Yeah. I know, right?”

“How can I make sure you didn’t just feed me ‘preservatives in the shape of a burger’?”

“Oh baby, we make our own buns in the kitchen every. single. day.” he answers. “And the vegetables? All organically grown, even the pickles I pickled myself! Here, look,” he fiddles his phone some more and then turns it to Nico. It’s a picture of Will, shirtless and posing with the crops. He looks really good shoveling dirt, watering tomatoes and lettuces, even scattering what he thinks are fertilizers. “Is that… manure?”

“Hm?” Will looks at the picture. “Yeah. From our poultry.”

“Wow,” he says dumbfoundedly, mainly because of the display of skin in the pictures. “Um, where’s your… farm?”

“Upstate. I go there every week. I have plenty other cousins who take care of it. I like to help whenever I’m not doing anything, which is mostly every Sunday. You wanna see the place? I’m heading there Sunday morning.”

“Um,” He pops a fry in his mouth. “It’s fine. I, uh, have contracts to review that day.”

“That’s too bad,” Will purses his lip. Cute. “I leave at 7:00 in the morning if you change your mind.” He clicks his tongue. “What do you do anyway? I noticed you wear suits every time I see you.”

“In business.”

“Elaborate?”

“No.”

“Alright then. Keep your business secrets.” He reaches over to pick a fry from Nico’s plate and dips it in a ketchup-mayo concoction. He chews with his mouth open.

“You chew with your mouth open,” Nico says.

“Am I?” He pops another fry in his mouth, still chewing with his mouth open. “I don’t think so.”

Nico rolls his eyes.

“You’re really cute, you know,” Will says. Nico chokes on his fries. Will hands him his cup which he quickly accepts. 

Red in the face and slapping his chest, Nico scowls at him. He clears his throat. “Why would you say that?”

Will shrugs. “Because you’re cute.” He takes Nico’s cup and takes a sip. Nico’s scowl deepens. “I have this thing where I tell people I like that I like them.”

“Why?”

“Childhood trauma.” Nico stiffens. “Nah, I’m just messin’ with ya. ‘Cus the last time I liked someone, they moved away before I could tell them that I like ‘em.”

Yikes. Heavy stuff on the first date. Er, not that he thinks this is a date. Jesus. “And you couldn’t call them because…?”

“I was in 5th grade. Phones weren’t a thing and they moved like, the middle of the week. They weren’t allowed to play with us that much so no one noticed they moved.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I found them eventually. I mean, after like 7 years? But they don’t know me anymore.”

“That sucks.”

“I know, right?! You know what sucked even more?” Nico stares at him, waiting for him to continue. “He would have remembered me if I gave them my whole name.”

Oh, Nico is _now_ invested in this. “What the hell did they call you the whole time you knew each other?!”

“Liam. No one even calls me that anymore. But I knew theirs. I remember them climbing up their fence and showing me their school ID then BAM! their name is in my mind forever. Even their middle name.”

Nico purses his lip, trying to think of things to say that aren't insensitive. “I-”

“It’s fine now. Since then I always told the people I like that I like ‘em. And I like you, s’why I’m telling you.”

Nico goes red in the face a little bit, the back of his neck now a bit warm despite the chilly night. “You don’t have to tell me anything, though. As I’ve said, I’m just telling you. No need to reciprocate. Wait, I wanna be friends, though. Do you wanna be friends?“

What the hell is going on? After confessing this guy just casually asks if they could be friends? Is this normal? Is this how normal people ‘get’ friends? God, he couldn’t even remember how he, Reyna, Percy, and Annabeth became friends. Did they approach him like this or did they just pick him from the crowd and told him to stick with them? He was 11, he couldn’t remember anymore.

This is his chance to make a new friend.

“Uh,” Nico’s pulse gets a little faster and a thin film of sweat starts to form on his temples, but he manages to give a slight nod. Will beams like a dog. If he were a Labrador, his ears would’ve perked up and his tail would’ve been wagging like crazy by now. Nico smirks at the thought.

“Yes! No takesies-backsies! I’m your problem now!” Will picks up his phone that’s facing down on the booth. “Let’s exchange numbers! Here, type in yours.” He gives Nico his phone so Nico has no choice but to type it down. “Sweet! I’m gonna call you, ‘kay?” He presses call and Nico’s phone rings.

Uh-huh. Okay, a lot is going on. Nico’s head is starting to swim and he feels a headache coming, plus he’s never been full like this in a long time.

Nico takes his wallet out from his back pocket. “How much do I owe you?”

“What? No, this,” Will hovers his hand above Nico’s empty dish and makes a circle. “is on the house. I invited you so you don’t have to pay me anything.”

“No, but what about your boss? Won’t he get mad?”

“What? Oh no, it’s fine. Here, watch this,” he turns to the bar and yells at the bartender, the same man who took Will when he was freezing to death a couple of months ago. “Lee! Is the boss gonna get mad if I let Nico go without paying?”

The bartender, Lee, looks at him quizzically, then at Nico, then back at him, then he yells back. “No.”

“See?”

“If you say so. However, if you get in trouble I don’t mind going back to pay you.”

“That’s sweet of you, but it’s fine. I promise. I’d like it if you come back, though. Got lots of food on the menu that I’d like you to try.”

“I’ll try.” Nico gives him a shy smile before getting out of the booth.

He will not admit it but he had a good time, but this is _not_ a date. Will walks him back to his car close to the street cam. The street is as dim as ever due to a few busted street lights but the environment is less sinister now than it was an hour ago because of Will. He glances at the bus stop, still no huge dog.

“I had fun tonight,” Will says. “I really hope you could come with me to the farm this Sunday but if you’re busy, it’s fine. You can go when you’re free. Or not. It’s up to you.” He rubs the back of his neck and looks down at his furry feet. 

“I enjoyed it too,” Nico replies. A little bashful from what’s going on. This is the first time that an interaction with a stranger, who isn’t a client, went well. Nico’s a little proud of himself. He can’t wait to tell this all to Reyna later.

“Yeah?” Will smiles again and Nico tries his hardest not to match it. “Cool.”

Nico unlocks his car and gropes for the door while still looking at Will. Goddamn he can’t take his eyes off him now that they’ve sat down and shared a meal. “I’m, uh, I’m gonna go now.” He says.

Will nods, still smiling. His dimple deep on his left cheek. He wants to kiss it. Don’t his cheeks hurt from smiling too much?

Finally, he gets inside his car. He turns the engine on and slowly peels out of the parking space. Will waves goodbye, he honks in response.

  
  


Nico’s Friday and Saturday were uneventful. No one fucked up so nothing memorable happened. Even Marcus managed to do his job for fucking once. Nico was all too ready to raise his voice as he received Marcus’ folder but it was fine. He mainly used simple vocabulary and a few business jargon but still it was fine. Nico glared at Marcus before sending him out of his office.

Saturday was the same. He didn’t exactly lie to Will when he said he had contracts to review because that was true, but he finished them all this morning. The sun wasn’t even high up when he started clearing his coffee table.

By 10:15, he received his third call of the month from Bianca. Then Hazel called around 10:19 so they switched to video call. 

Hazel was 5 months along so she’s starting to show. She showed her baby bump to her siblings and they both congratulated her and Frank. Bianca’s little runts, Hugo and Maria, also made an appearance during the call. They squealed and tried to take the phone away from their mom but Bianca was quick to stand up and moved away from them. She told her kids to give their dad a piggyback ride to which they instantly did.

The three siblings caught up, talking about their jobs, recently developed hobbies, friends, and Bianca and Hazel’s favorite: Nico’s love life.

“Did you meet somebody, Nico? You look like you’re itching to tell us something.” Bianca teased. Nico bit the inside of his cheek.

“Oh you did! This is great! What’s his name?”

“Shut up, I didn’t. I was just excited about your pregnancy.”

“Bullshit. But whatever, I know you’ll tell us when you’re ready.”

And that’s why he loved his sisters.

That conversation, and the rest that followed, was 13 hours ago. It is now technically Sunday and Nico is still thinking about Will’s invitation. If he sleeps _right now,_ he can still have 6.5 hours of sleep before he needs to be up. That’s not bad at all. He’s been functioning for 5 hours or less sleep for the past 15 years so he reckons he’s gonna be fine **_if_** he decides to join Will upstate. Which he will not. Probably.

Nico is in Will’s truck riding shotgun. 

The sun is shining bright, but not too hot to burn. It’s still 7:15 after all.

Will is humming the song on the radio with his elbow slung on the open window. The sunglasses he’s wearing frame his face perfectly, his loose white shirt flutters in the wind. He looks relaxed. He looks divine. 

Nico can’t help but think about that dang Taylor Swift song that Hazel loved so much as a teenager, the one that sounds unmistakably country, the one that goes ‘I was riding shotgun with my hair undone in the front seat of his car’.

Cheesy but it’s the first thing that popped in his mind the moment they got onto the highway and the rays of the sun touched Will’s face. He almost felt jealous of the sun.

Will turns his head to Nico, “I’m really glad you came,” then promptly looks back on the road.

The spring air is a bit cold on his warm skin, and the seemingly endless rows of trees on the side of the road cool his eyes that he can’t help but close them. He stifles a yawn, worried that the act might get a negative reaction from Will, but one glance at the man says otherwise. He’s still smiling, almost contentedly. He inhales deeply before turning his head to Nico.

“I know you’re sleepy. It’s fine, take a nap. We still have at least an hour of driving, I’ll wake you up when we get there.” He lowers the volume of the stereo, enough for him to hear it but not loud enough that it would disrupt Nico’s nap.

Nico hesitates. “No, no. I’m fine. Staying up is the least I could do after tagging along unannounced.”

“Unannounced? Dude, I practically begged you to come.” No, he didn’t. “It’s fine. Rest, I insist.”

Nico scowls at Will again. “Don’t tell me I didn’t try hard enough to stay awake.”

“Just sleep. There’s a blanket somewhere behind you.”

“It’s fine.” Nico shifts, arranging himself so he could sleep as comfortable as one can be in a cramped truck. “Wake me up in 30 minutes.”

“Sure.”

And then he closes his eyes.

“Hey,” a light tapping on his arm. “Hey, Nico, we’re here.”

Nico squints and wipes the drool in the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. He quickly wipes it on his pants. “We’re here?”

“Yeah. Didn’t have the heart to wake you up earlier, sorry.” Nico groans and stretches, he cracks his neck and shudders. “Anyway, we’re here. Come on, I’ll introduce you to some of my cousins.” Will gets out of the car and heads behind the truck to retrieve crates and other things they’re gonna need in harvesting crops.

Still a little groggy from his nap, Nico sweeps the property with his gaze first before helping Will. He takes two crates (his arms still weak from sleep) and follows Will in a hut. Will leaves him inside to get more crates.

The farm isn’t that big, it’s small enough that he can see everything in one turn but big enough that crops aren’t crowding one another. Maybe a good two hectares, if he estimates correctly. His old high school was three hectares big and this place looks just a little smaller than that.

“Hello. What can I do for you?” An orange-haired girl dyed green at the tips asks. She’s holding a basket full of eggs.

“Uh,” Nico says dumbly. He’s a little out of it still.

“Kayla!” Will yells from behind, running towards them. The girl, Kayla, turns and waves her hand at him. “Nico, this is my cousin Kayla. Kayla, this is Nico. He’s a friend.“

Wow. Friend. Feels good to hear that from someone else’s mouth that is not Reyna’s, Percy’s, or Annabeth’s.

“Oh,” She says, but with a knowing look on her face. Why? “Hi, Nico. Nice to meet you!” Kayla extends a hand, he shakes it. “Are you gonna help with the harvest today?”

“I am, yes.”

“Okay.” Kayla places the basket of eggs on the large table. “Let’s go,” she says. Will and Nico follow her out.

Working on the farm with Will and Kayla was… fun. He got sweaty and kinda gross but it did not ruin his fun. He met another one of Will’s cousins around lunch, Austin, (he said he was doing something important before coming to help), which also gave Will a knowing look. The four of them picked tomatoes, gathered lettuce, potatoes, carrots, and yams.

Nico got a little tanned and his back hurt when they were done but it was all worth it. He works in an office so his complexion will go back in about 2 weeks, and he’s got some transdermal patches at home. He’s gonna be fine.

Austin and Kayla gave Nico his own supply of bacon, eggs, and a few of the vegetables as a thank you for helping them. He refused at first but the three of them ganged up on him so he had no choice but to accept them. He doesn’t cook much but he can think of a few things to do with what they gave him.

By 4:30 PM, Will and Nico bid goodbye to Austin and Kayla and headed back to the city.

Nico fell asleep again, exhausted and happy in a long while.

Nico becomes a permanent fixture on the farm after that and he tells her sisters and friends about it. They’re mostly glad, saying it’s about time Nico made friends with people he did not meet as a literal child. He’s mostly happy too, even when he can’t believe it, that finally he has something to do every weekend aside from playing video games and watching horror movies from sun up ‘til sundown, and he has a place to go to when his home-work-home routine becomes so tedious he needs to break the streak and go somewhere lest he’d snap.

He properly meets Charles and Lee two weeks after his first visit to Will’s family’s farm. That was when he found out Lee is also one of Will’s cousins, while Charles is one of his friends that would still talk to him. He deduces that, of course. Nobody really tells him anything even if they’re all technically ‘friends’. For someone as open as Will, he can be a little dodgy when it comes to certain subjects like friends, immediate family, and where he lives.

Nico doesn't mind it at all. Even better this way, he thinks. At least Nico is not pressured to tell Will everything he does since he, too, has stuff he doesn't want to tell Nico.

Just your regular friendship.

Except Nico is a squirrel and he wants to climb him like a fucking tree.

And he wants to hold his hand, kiss his face, take him out on a date. He wants to shower with him, sleep on the same bed as him, and maybe, if everything goes right, introduce him to Bianca and Hazel and Percy and Annabeth and Reyna. 

Will is attractive. Hot. If he remembers correctly, those were the exact words he used to describe Will in his head. And the more he spends time with Will, the more he wants to pull him down and kiss him stupid. Maybe wrap his legs around his hips and demand he rail him on the nearest horizontal space. It also doesn’t help that Will insists on doing farm work shirtless.

But being shirtless is one thing, touching his hips every time Will passes behind him and _subtly_ sniffing him whenever he’s close, which is all the time, is another.

One time, a week after they pickled vegetables and made other stuff, Will made him a small feast in the kitchen. Nico was hesitant to try them since he never favored spicy foods but Will insisted, saying they weren’t spicy at all. Will carefully scooped out jicama from a jar, sliced it evenly, and fed Nico one. They stood too close to each other as Nico let Will drop the food on his waiting tongue. He blushed scarlet when Nico’s tongue touched the tip of his finger and Nico barely stopped himself from sucking on it.

He came so hard that night thinking about how he should’ve gone on his knees and sucked Will off until he came in his mouth.

Another time, while Will was working shirtless on the farm, Nico accidentally tripped him and he came sprawling down on the ground. He pulled Nico down and wrestled him on the mud. Nico wasn’t having, of course, so he fought him hard and dirty, grabbing Will to where he’s most sensitive, but Will was bigger, stronger. But the way Will trapped Nico underneath him, both of them panting and half hard in their pants, did Nico really lose?

It has been almost a year since he met Will and needless to say, Nico has never felt this sexually frustrated _ever_ in his life (and he dated a guy who refused to have sex with him unless they get engaged and another guy who was way into edging).

Like right now, Will and Nico are in the farmer’s market, trying to buy crates and crates of fresh produce for The Company as the four of them (he, Will, Austin, and Kayla) have uprooted all the old crops and planted new ones for the next harvest season, Will has his arm slung across Nico’s shoulders, pulling him in close and pointing at various stalls and products, whispering that Nico ‘should try them all’. He’s not complaining, of course. He likes it when Will does that. It makes him feel giddy, light, and _owned._ Not that he would admit that to anybody, not even to his sisters.

After the farmer’s market, they go back to The Company. He helps Charles and Michael, who decided to visit earlier, unload the products while Will rushes to the toilet.

In the middle of placing all the perishables inside the walk-in freezer, Will emerges from the employee’s bathroom pale as a sheet. He groans.

“What’s wrong?” Nico asks, getting up close to Will and feeling his forehead. Will groans again, leaning against his touch. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Will sighs, eyes closed and shoulders slumped. He groans softly. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were sick? Lee and I could’ve gone to the market.” Nico turns to find Lee and Michael but nobody’s in the kitchen with them anymore. He lets Will sit on a nearby chair and goes out to find Lee or anybody else.

Charles comes in with a box full of sweet potatoes. “Charles! I didn’t know you were here.” He says in a rush. “Will’s sick. Do you have anything for nausea or vomiting? I think he was puking in the toilet.”

“What?” Charles moves the box he’s holding to one hand and takes his phone out from his pocket. He unlocks it and swipes a couple of times. “Oh shit, we totally forgot.” He locks it and slides it back into his pocket.

“What? What did you forget?”

“Um, do we still have plenty of stuff to do?” Charles asks. It’s impressive how he keeps the box on his hand perfectly balanced.

“I don’t think so. Just a couple more jars to put away,”

“Right, right.” Charles hums and looks around the place then turns back to Nico. “I think Lee and I can finish up here. Can you take Will home?”

“Where’s Michael?”

“Took off. Bought something for lunch. Will you take him home?”

“I dunno where he lives.” A shriek in the kitchen and Charles and Nico immediately turn.

“He lives at the edge of Del Rio Sur. When you see the border, turn right. Drive, right again then just straight until you see a house with a blue roof. There’s plenty of daylight, it won’t be that hard to miss.”

“Del Rio Sur, border, right, drive, right, straight. Got it. That’s really far, how does he get here on time?”

“He likes driving way past the speed limit. S’why I don’t ride with him.”

“He never speeds when I’m with him.”

“You must be pretty special then. He likes speeding.” Charles brings the box to the kitchen and comes out a few minutes later with a significantly better-looking Will, still pale, still sweaty but can open his eyes now, supported by his muscular arms. “I’m gonna get him out. Where do you want him, his truck or yours?”

Decide. Quick. “Um, mine.” Charles nods and coaxes Will to walk. Will whispers something in his ear and he frowns. Charles says something back to him when they’re out of earshot then it’s Nico’s turn to frown. What the fuck is going on?

Nico gathers his stuff with eyebrows scrunched up and follows the two men outside. Will is already in the passenger seat, head tipped back and eyes closed. He's breathing shallowly.

Charles has his hands on his hips as he watches Nico throw his bag in the backseat, his face as serious as a parent's disapproval. He looks tense and scary that Nico refuses to look at him straight on, just glances from the corner of his eyes. 

“I put a bunch of food in your trunk so you might want to get those in the fridge when Will’s settled. I reckon he’ll be stuck in his room for at least two to three days. There’s milk, eggs, meat, lots of protein. He’ll be dehydrated so just give him a pitcher of water every two hours.” Nico nods, mentally writing down everything. "Don't leave him, please," Charles says, a hint of pleading in his voice but Nico doesn't look too much into it.

Charles is still looking at them when they pull away from the curb where he's parked. He gives Nico a short wave while Will rests his head on the window. He curls up, hugging a knee and then shifting again so he's facing Nico. "Hot," he says. Nico bites his lip and steps on the gas.

"Is it bad? There's a hospital a few kilometers away, I’m gonna drop you there."

"No!" Will protests. He tries to sit upright, winces, then just curls on his side again. "I-I'm fine- _ah._ Hm. I'm fine. Just, _fuck,_ just drop me in Del Rio. I'll walk on my own."

"You're drooling like you've eaten a spoonful of MSG and you're sweating like a vampire in a church. You expect me to drop you off like a stray? Nuh-uh, either we go to the emergency room together or I drop you on your bed."

Will curls up even more and grips his hair tight, golden curls spill out of his hands. It looks painful.

And then Will moans, filthy and long like he'd just eaten a meal after being starved for so long.

In normal circumstances, Nico would have blushed. His blood would've boiled, rushing down to his cock, filling it up in a short while, but Will does _not_ look like he's having fun. He's now curled away from Nico, head back on the window, and biting the back of his hand so hard he's drawing blood. 

Nico floors it. 

  
  


After what he feels like six hours, they're finally in what he thinks is Will's lawn. It's huge. And green. And hidden. He wants to explore the property but Will's starting to wake up. Nico kills the engine, flies out of the driver's seat, and yanks Will's door open. He presses himself on Will's chest and hauls him up. He's burning. The action doesn't do much but it wakes Will up, scrunching his nose. He stands on wobbly feet with Nico under him, hand splayed wide on his chest and back, helping him up. He gropes Will for his keys in his pocket and unlocks the door.

The place is spotless, except for some scuff marks on the floor and a few of the furniture. And it strangely smells like wet dog. Does Will have a dog? He never mentioned owning one. 

It's a little bit on the dark side despite the large windows since trees are blocking the natural light from entering, but it's still nice. He sees his scarf draped on the couch, the one he wrapped around Will’s neck in winter.

Huh, he forgot about that one.

Nico looks up at Will, sweat trailing down from his temples to his chin. "Where's your bedroom?"

"Ahead," Will says, voice strained like he's trying hard not to grunt. 

Nico feels Will slowly slipping, he pushes himself closer and moves the hand from Will's back to his hip. Goddamn, he's fucking heavy. Nico grips him tight. Will moans again. "Woah," Nico exclaims when he looks down and sees Will's tented pants.

Will grunts. "Sorry," He tries to pull himself off of Nico but he holds him tighter. "Just, _ugh,_ just leave me here. _Ah fuck,_ I'm okay."

"Fat chance. Come on." Nico uses the last of his strength to help Will to his bedroom. Will flops on the bed and curls away immediately. Panting and sprawled beside Will, Nico asks. "Are you gonna be okay?" Will nods frantically. "Do you need anything?" Will whines but shakes his head. "That sounds like a lie. I'm just gonna stay here until you feel better." Will doesn't answer to that, just shuts his eyes tight and grinds his teeth. He's so sweaty his hair sticks to his temples, forehead, and neck. His shirt is soaked like he’d just come up from a pool.

It pains him to see Will like this but he has no idea what to do. All he can do right now is be here for him and help with whatever he needs.

He stands up and pushes Will into the center of the bed. He wrestles with Will to pull his sweat-soaked shirt off and turns the AC as high as it allows so Will cools down easily.

He's going to take care of Will even if it kills him. He can barely take care of himself the last time he was sick but how hard can it be, right? 

Nico gathers the dirty clothes scattered in his room on his way out then he hears Will’s door lock behind him. “Will? You can’t lock your door. I can’t give you shit if you lock your door.”

“I’m fine!” Will screams.

“You’re not! Open the door!”

“No!”

Shit. “Don’t make me kick this down!”

“You can’t.” Nico tries. He can’t.

“I’m gonna find a way!”

Nico huffs away from the door and starts cleaning whatever he can. He remembers Charles’ food in the trunk so he grabs them and stores them in Will’s fridge. By 2 PM, he makes a simple dish by sautéing string beans with tomatoes, onion, garlic, and the leftover pork chop in Will’s fridge. He put a splash of soy sauce, pepper, and cooked some rice. It’s not rich in protein just like Charles said but it’s the easiest thing he could make in 15 minutes. Surely Will must be hungry. Nico fills a pitcher with water, puts the dish in a tray, and places it outside of Will’s room. “Will, open up, I made food.”

“No!” Will growls from inside.

Nico kicks the door. “Ugh! Just let me do my job!”

“No!”

“Fine! Fuck. I’m putting these on the floor along with a couple of mefenamic acid and paracetamol. Do not take them all together! Paracetamol is for headaches, mefenamic acid is for body pain. Eat your food and take your medicine. If I see them sitting outside your door in 20 minutes, I’m gonna find a fucking ax and I’m gonna break this fucking door down, you hear?!” Will doesn’t answer. “Do not fucking try me, Will. I did it before and I sure as fuck can do it still.” He angrily puts the food down and goes outside for a walk.

The food is gone when Nico comes back 30 minutes later. 5 minutes after that, the tray and empty pitcher sit outside his door. Nico smiles to himself and refills the water and places them again in front of Will’s room. 

The routine goes on for two days, Will’s door stays locked the whole time. Nico makes him bacon and eggs for snacks, and when those run out, Nico finds some protein powder in the pantry and starts serving Will shakes and whatever protein-rich food he can rummage in the fridge. The pills stay untouched.

Charles underestimated Will’s appetite so by the second day their supply’s almost gone. Nico ends up eating canned foods from the pantry just so Will could still have his supply of meat.

  
  


It’s the third night and from what Charles had told him, Will should be fine by tomorrow, enough that he can finally come out of his room.

It’s a cold night, and Nico is bundled up on Will’s couch with his scarf serving as a makeshift blanket. He found some proper blanket earlier but he’s too lazy to go get it. Nico starts to doze off, the blue light of the small TV illuminating the living room, when the sound of breaking china startles him awake.

“Hello?” Nico says. “Will, is that you?” He stands up, heart thundering in his chest.

Nico carefully makes his way to the kitchen, cautious not to make any loud noise so as not to scare the intruder. “Will?” He whispers again just as he’s about to step into the kitchen. Nico gropes the wall for the switch and flicks it on. 

“Oh fuck.”

He’s expecting to see Will rummaging through their food for a late-night snack but instead he finds a big ass wolf, even bigger than the one he tried to adopt almost a year ago. Its fur is matte to hell, and it's trying to open the chest freezer with its wicked-looking claws. The wolf whips its head to Nico, spit dripping from its lips, and locks eyes with him before bolting to the window, spraying glass everywhere in the process.

Nico is too surprised to scream, so he lays there, breathing hard with his eyes wide open, adrenaline rushing through his veins, his heart on his throat. Then-

“Will.”

Nico is on his feet, on his way to Will’s room. 

It’s wide open.

The blankets and pillows ripped to shreds, but no Will.

Nico rushes out, attempting to follow the animal but it’s long gone.

Where the fuck is Will?

He calls out to the other but no one answers. He circles the house, the property but the blond isn’t anywhere. He scours the forest for a couple of hours, armed only with his phone’s flashlight and a dull bread knife he found in the kitchen, freezing his ass off but determined to find Will. 

Still nothing. 

He frantically calls Charles and tells him what happened but Charles just takes a deep breath, yawns, and tells him it’s gonna be fine. He assures him that Will is safe and Nico should get some sleep since he sounds exhausted to the bone.

Why is he not worried about his best friend?! Why is Charles so calm about this?!

_“I know what you’re thinking. Just trust me, Nico, don’t call the cops. Will will explain everything to you in the morning, I promise. Get inside, please. Make yourself comfortable and sleep. He’ll be there in the morning.”_

Nico wants to protest but Charles has ended the call. He takes the 3-inch dull bread knife out of his back pocket, sticking it in front of him, and walks his way back to the house. The window is shattered so he moves to Will’s empty but still cold bedroom. He takes his scarf from the living room and curls to himself until sleep takes him an hour later.

“Nico,” Nico’s head pounds even before he opens his eyes. “Hey, Nico.” A hand brushes away the hairs covering his eyes. 

He groans and rubs his dry eyes. His eyelids burn with exhaustion. “Will?” He asks, squinting from the bright sun. 

“Good morning,”

 _“Hnn,_ time s’it?”

“Just around 9.”

“Mkay,” he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “You’re okay.”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Warm skin touches his forehead. A kiss?

Nico sighs. “Wolf.” Oh fuck, right. Nico opens his eyes right away, suddenly remembering everything that happened last night. “Fuck,” he groans. “There’s a wolf.” He tries to sit, holding on to Will’s arm to haul himself up. He inspects Will for gashes, wounds, bite marks, anything that would indicate that he got hurt. “T-there was a wolf! Or a dog, l-like the one at the bus stop. I-I thought you got hurt! You weren’t in your room, your room was unlocked it was trying to open the freezer I--”

“Hey, hey, hey, sh,” Will cups his face in his hand and rubs his shoulder gently, calming him down. “It’s alright, it’s alright. I’m here.”

“You weren’t in your room. Where did you go? I looked everywhere. I was so worried I went into the forest, I called Charles, I called you. You weren’t answering. Where were you?” Nico wants to scream but he’s so exhausted all he can do is ask. He’s confused. He needs answers. He needs sleep.

Nico doesn’t cry, he can’t even remember the last time he cried, but the last 72 hours have been extremely challenging. Nobody told him anything even when it’s glaringly obvious that there’s a fucking storm going on, but he cared about Will so much he went in blind.

Of literally all the things that could happen, he never fucking expected a fucking wolf breaking into the house.

Then he called the only person who _might_ have an idea what’s going on and he told him to ‘make himself comfortable and sleep’? Fuck that. Nico is allowed to cry.

Nico rubs away the moisture in his eyes and looks at Will blankly while waiting for an answer. He doesn’t have the energy to be angry anymore.

Will’s face twists in... pain? Agony? Whatever. He looks around, probably trying to think of a lie. Anybody who looks like that before answering a question is going to bullshit you. 

“I, uh, I went out.”

Liar. “Bullshit.” He brushes Will’s hands off him and stands up. He grabs his scarf and makes his way to the door but Will grabs him. He tries to shake him off. “Let go.”

“Nico,” he starts. “I don’t… I can’t-”

“Whatever, man. I thought we had something, but it’s clear that I made it all in my head. I skipped three,” he looks at his watch “four days of work for you. I don’t even care about that but if you’re gonna lie, at least make it believable.”

“It’s not that--”

“You pitied me, I get it. No need to lie to me. I see your knowing looks with your cousins, your hushed conversations with Lee and Charles. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about but I know it’s about me.“ Nico tries to shake Will’s hand off his wrist one more time. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to pretend to be friends with me after this.”

“Nico, listen to me please--”

“I’m exhausted, Will. I wanna go home and get some sleep.” Another weak shake, still Will won’t let go.

His grip gets a little tighter around Nico’s wrist. “I’m a werewolf.” 

Nico takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He tips his head to the ceiling and prays for more patience. “Let go, Will.”

“No. I am not letting you go.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No. I _am_ a werewolf.”

Nico sags to the floor. “Fucking Christ, man. That’s not- just let me go, Will. If you really wanna talk, we’ll talk on Saturday. I gotta come in for work.”

“I’m not lying. You want proof?” Will crouches down and then his face… shifts. He still looks the same but his hair is suddenly shaggier, longer and his stubble more noticeable. His whole face looks like it’s growing, giving him some sort of a snout, and his teeth, oh god his teeth.

Nico shrieks and tries to back away, pressing himself on the wall, still transfixed on Will’s face. Then, in a blink of an eye, his face returns to normal. “What the fuck...” Nico whispers. He scrambles to his feet, trying to get away but Will still has his iron grip on Nico’s wrist.

“Nico, wait.”

“What the fuck is going on?! You- you’re face!” He digs his fingers in his hair and tugs. 

“I never wanted to keep this from you but I know you’d freak out.”

“Oh fuck. You think?! Holy shit. Are you going to eat me?!”

“No, for fuck’s sake. I’m not gonna do that, Nico. I’m in love with you, I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“Fucking Christ this is too much. Let go, I need to lie down. Fuck!” He tries to push Will’s hand off his wrist but the other man doesn’t budge.

“Don’t leave. I swear I’m not gonna hurt you, just listen.”

“Jesus Christ, I’m not gonna leave Will, I’m about to pass the fuck out. Let go!” Nico’s head swims. Too much information has been dumped on him and his heart is still racing, his eyes are still burning, his mouth feels like a fucking desert, like he just swallowed a mouthful of sand. Lights pulsing behind his eyelids, his ears feel like they’ve been stuffed with water. He has to lie down.

Will frantically carries Nico in his arms and brings him to bed.

Nico’s body goes limp the moment he hits the mattress and closes his eyes once more, trying his best not to lose consciousness by breathing slowly and deeply. The small space by his leg dips as he feels the warmth of Will’s hand on his skin. He doesn’t open his eyes.

They stay like that for a while; Nico lying still while Will rubs small circles on his ankle with his thumb. They don’t talk, the only noises that can be heard are the twittering of birds and the rustling of leaves.

It’s peaceful. 

Nico wakes up again with the afternoon sun shining bright and hot outside the window. Curled up at the edge of the bed is Will, still holding Nico’s ankle and softly snoring.

His hair is longer, Nico observes, and he’s grown a fair amount of facial hair from the whole time he’s holed up in his room. Speaking of which, he never noticed it last night but Will’s entire room has a musk. His nose must’ve grown accustomed to the smell so it doesn’t bother him anymore but it is there.

Nico tries to sit without waking Will up but fails. Will groans, rubs his eyes, and yawns. He licks his lips and sits on his legs at the edge of the mattress, head bowed and hands to his lap like that kid from the anime he watched a few weeks ago awaiting punishment.

“Stop that,” he says. “Look at me.” Will slowly meets his eyes.

“I just don’t want you to be scared.”

“I’m fine now. I guess.”

“Are you hungry? Do you need water?”

“It’s fine,” Nico scratches his temple. “I’ll get them later. Why don’t you tell me everything.”

“Okay.” Will looks down on his lap again and starts drawing on his skin with his nail. To ease the awkwardness perhaps. “I’m a werewolf. Wasn’t always like this, I think?” Nico raises an eyebrow but doesn’t interrupt. “I, uh, I was transformed? I’m not really sure. We think it’s a curse ‘cus not all of us have… this. It’s kind of like that show Fruits Basket, have you heard of it? I think it’s like that but I’m the only one. I don’t turn into a wolf when a girl touches me, no. That’s… not true. I’m the fifth in the whole clan to have this uh, gift so yeah, not everyone. My dad’s the family historian so I guess he has some answers but I haven’t seen him in 3 years.”

He paused. Nico thinks it’s for him to ask questions but he doesn’t have any.

“And uh, I was the uh, dog you were feeding.”

“What?”

“I was the dog you brought home.”

“Yeah, I got that. Why the fuck did you let me?!”

“I don’t know! No one’s been kind to me in that form and you wouldn't talk to me when I’m me so I gave it a shot. Then you talked about adopting me and shit and I freaked out ‘cus I don’t want to be a wolf when I’m around you. I wanna be me.” Will repositions himself so he’s sitting properly with his legs crossed. “So I sneaked out when you were at work.”

“Jesus fuck I was so scared. I thought my landlord called animal control on that dog.” He rubs his temples, willing for the blooming headache to go away. “What about the other day, what happened to you, why were you hurt?”

“I, uh, I was in my rut.” Will blushes and looks away for a moment before clearing his throat.

“Rut? What the fuck does that mean?”

“Like rut in deers?” Will looks again at Nico, red in the face like a ripened tomato.

“I don’t know what that means,” Nico responds.

“The time where animals, mostly male animals, are sexually active.”

“So you were horny? Like, nature-induced horniness?”

“To put it bluntly, yes.”

Nico takes a deep breath once more and rubs his face, rubs it for all its worth because this is so fucked up. None of this makes sense but somehow it does. He’s seen Will transform, sort of, and if he thinks about it, signs are backing up Will’s claims: the abundance of light brown fur everywhere, scuff marks on the floor, walls, and ceiling, the dog (wolf?) musk that just won’t leave no matter how long he opens the windows, and perhaps the excessive meat consumption. But those could also mean he has a Golden Retriever the size of an adult human. 

But good fucking god help him, his attraction to Will has never waned.

He still wants to hold his hand, kiss his face, take him out on a date. He still wants to shower with him, sleep on the same bed as him, introduce him to Bianca, Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, and Reyna, and definitely have rough and bendy sex with him.

“Come here,” he finally says. Will comes in a little closer. “More.” He stops a foot away from Nico. “Jesus, just come closer okay? I’m not gonna yell at you.” Will scrunches his nose and moves closer until their knees are touching.

Will looks at him with eyes that seemed to shine from how big they are. God, he’s so handsome. He leans in close, kissing Will on his cheek, the corner of his mouth, and finally his lips. 

Will sucks in a breath. “Um, Nico? Wuh-what are you doing?”

“Kissing you, you idiot.” Nico takes Will’s hand and puts it on his hips. He takes Will’s face in his hands and kisses him again. Fuck morning breath, he brushed his teeth last night before going to bed.

Will moves his hand to Nico’s arm. “Um, why?”

“Because I like you too.” Will breathes heavily. “Are you gonna kiss me or are you still gonna-- _oh.”_ Nico whimpers. The hand is back on his hips and Will grips it harder.

“Are you sure? ‘Cus I still got leftover rut inside me. If I start now it’s gonna be real hard for me to stop.”

“But you’re gonna stop when I tell you to, right?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not gonna maul me or bite my head off?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t see what’s the problem.”

Making out with Will is one of the best feelings ever. It’s sloppy, it’s hot, and Will’s hands roam _everywhere._ Will is so much bigger than he is that he didn’t even notice he’s already straddling him.

Will is warm, so much warmer than all his ex-boyfriends that he can’t help but lean all his weight against him like a cat. A very faint sound from the back of Will’s throat fills Nico’s ears as he rests his head on Will’s head. It’s comforting.

Will peels his clothes off starting with his shirt, then his filthy jeans from last night that he never got the chance to change because of exhaustion and worry. 

Nico blushes hard when Will finally removes his shirt. Somehow, looking at Will feels like the first time he’s seen a cover of a bodice ripper at the tender age of 10--his insides tingle at the sight of his hard muscles, broad shoulders, his golden hair, ripped jeans, the splatter of hair on his chest. Will looks incredibly masculine and Nico _aches_ for him.

“You like it, huh?” Will grins at him like a cat that got the cream. He fumbles with his belt. Nico turns his attention to Will’s calves (they’re wonderful calves).

“Were you removing your shirt on purpose every time we work at the farm?”

“Yeah. Why, d’you like it?” Nico rolls his eyes. 

Will pulls his pants down and steps out of it and Nico almost chokes. Wil takes his half hard dick in his hand and gives it a little stroke. Fucking hell, he looks even better naked. Nico’s mouth fucking waters just by looking at him. Nico shifts his position on the bed, his boxers getting tighter and tighter by the second as Will slowly makes his way on the bed. Nico props himself up on his elbows and _looks._

“Fuck,” Will moans. “Nico, baby, you’re killing me. God-fucking-dammit, how am I so lucky?” He tips his head back and kneels on the bed. He’s hard now and motherfucker he’s so thick. Nico wants to get his mouth on him, he has to taste him.

Nico tries to sit but Will pulls his legs closer causing him to fall on the bed. Then Will pulls his boxers off and throws them somewhere in the room. He wastes no time swallowing Nico down and it takes Nico almost everything not to fuck his mouth. He feels so good around him--wet and hot and tight. Will spit dribbles down his chin as he bobs his head up and down until Nico slaps his neck.

“Will, stop, I don’t wanna cum yet. Fuck!”

Will stops at once, removing his mouth from Nico and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He wipes it on the edge of the bed. Without any warning, he flips Nico to his stomach and raises his hips until Nico gets the idea and uses his knees to brace himself. It all happened so fast that Nico doesn’t register what’s going on until Will has spread his ass and licks a stripe from his perineum to his tailbone.

“Will!” Nico screams. _“Mfuck,_ that’s filthy! I haven’t had- _uugh_ haven’t showered yet!”

Will continues licking, kissing, nipping the sensitive around his hole. Nico hears a click then a cold sensation and he’s keening again. He doesn’t know where the fuck that lube came from but fuck if it didn’t make Will’s fingers feel so good inside him. He squirms and tries to lower his hips to grind his cock on the bed but Will doesn’t let him. Shit, there’s gonna be a huge ass bruise on his hips tomorrow and he loves it already.

“Gotta stay like this, baby. You can come later I promise.” Will gives a wet kiss near his twitching hole.

Two fingers become three and soon Will is flipping Nico again to his back and bends him until his knees are touching his shoulders. He licks the back on Nico’s knees and bites the inside of his thigh. “You look so beautiful, baby, only for me.”

Nico is so turned on and ready to blow he can’t speak anymore, just moans and a litany of curses and “Will”.

Will is big, bigger than everyone he’s had sex with, possibly because of his wolf (werewolf?) gene or whatever, Nico literally doesn’t care, so he had doubts he would ever fit inside him, but Will has prepped him well and prepped him long. When Will pushes in, the pain turns to a dull ache after a while then all he can feel is the wonderful throb of having Will’s hard cock inside him. 

A few moments or five hours later, Nico can’t be sure, Will starts to move. Nico loses himself to the sensation.

 _“Ahh,”_ Nico keens as Will’s hard thrusts continue, his arms wrapped around Will’s back, painting his skin with red welts and crescents. He feels so good in him, on him, surrounded by warmth and safety and just enough roughness to make him lose his goddamn mind. 

Caged around Will’s weight, thighs, and arms, Nico can’t do anything except take, take, take everything that Will is willing to give.

Will moans above him as he gives another hard thrust, snapping his hips over and over. He leans down and laps on Nico’s neck, nipping and licking his pale skin, trying not to do it hard enough to draw blood. _“Haah,_ don’t tear the skin. Co-workers will _ungh fuck,_ will notice.”

“I won’t.” Will kisses him again, his tongue licking inside Nico’s mouth, devouring him. He feels Will’s canines, sharp and long. It prickles his tongue

“Will, Will,”

“What do you need, baby?”

“Faster, I’m about to…”

Will immediately removes himself from Nico and flips him again, draping himself on his back and pushing back in. It’s so fucking hot how Will can just throw him whenever he wants and he’d be powerless to do anything.

“You wanna come, baby?”

 _“Uhn,”_ Nico nods his head vigorously. Will picks up the pace of his thrusts and moves one hand to his chest to lift him and pulls Nico to his chest as if they’re not close enough already. Will sits on his heels with Nico on his lap. The pounding of his hips turns brutal as Will hits that sweet spot over and over inside him and he starts to scream. Thank fuck they’re in the middle of fucking nowhere because the Stolls would never live it down if they hear him like this. They would milk this until it bleeds dry and Nico would have no choice but to move from embarrassment.

“Your mind’s somewhere baby, am I not fucking you hard enough?” Will pauses then snaps his hips again forward, then doing it again and again. The speed is gone but the intensity is just the same. Nico trembles against him and then he’s coming, untouched, like the slut that he is.

“Fuck, fuck,”

“Baby, that’s so fucking hot,” Will grins and nips on his lobe. Nico can’t stop shaking. “Can I come now? _Fuck,_ I’m at my limit.”

“Yeah,” Nico says breathless and still a little out of it, a putty in Will’s hands. “Cum inside me,”

Will groans loudly. He turns Nico’s head to the side to kiss him stupid. _“Fuuck_ , you’re gonna fucking kill me!”

Nico lets out a breathy laugh. “S’long’s I don’t get knocked up,”

“Not gonna happen, babe.” Will pants against his ear. “But if you could I’m gonna breed you every single day.” He licks his neck again and starts another brutal pace. Will slides three fingers in his mouth and he sucks hungrily, pretending it’s Will’s thick cock in his mouth.

Will grinds against him, nips at his shoulder as he _uses_ him. His nerves sing with over-stimulation, tears prickle his eyes. It hurts now, but damn if he’d let Will stop. “Nico,” he brushes the hair away from the back of Nico’s ear and licks the patch of skin. “Are you sure? Last chance.”

Nico doesn’t answer, he can’t, instead he helplessly clenches around Will's cock. “Fuck!” Will removes his hand on Nico’s hips and bites the back of his hand hard, his warm blood dripping on Nico’s tender shoulder, staining it red, his warm cum painting Nico’s insides. They both shudder.

Will licks his blood off Nico’s shoulder and peppers kisses on them. He gently lays Nico down and pulls out. Nico whines, relieved. Will laughs on his side. “Was it good?” Will breathlessly asks.

“I’m fucking sore.”

“Was I too rough?”

“Just a lil bit too much,” Nico brings up a hand and makes a pinching gesture. “Like it, though.”

“Good to hear.”

They lay side by side like that for several minutes until Nico complains about the drying cum under him. Will chuckles and gets up to fetch a wet rag.

Motherfucker, Nico’s inner thighs are wet with Will’s cum and he can still feel himself dripping. He shudders once more. If he’s ten years younger he’s positive he can get hard again from thinking about how Will fucked him _good._ Jesus Christ, if he’s like this post-rut, what more _during_ rut? He’s gonna rearrange Nico’s guts if that happens. Fuck, they’re gonna have to talk about it tomorrow.

He thinks he must’ve dozed off because when he opens his eyes, Will is already beside him, gently wiping the evidence of their fucking and smiling to himself as he does it. He looks very pleased with himself. His wounded hand now in a sloppy bandage.

“Hey,” He greets when he notices Nico’s stare. “You okay?”

“Uh-huh. M’ still dripping.”

“Yeah, sorry. That tends to happen.”

“Mhm. Why’re you smilin’?”

“Nothing. I- I’m just happy.”

“Why?”

“‘Cus you like me too. And you’re not grossed out about me turning into a wolf.”

“Not gonna lie, I thought you were a big ass dog.”

“I know. No one in their right mind would try to befriend a wolf.” Nico swats his hips. “But I’m really glad you’re dumbass enough to feed a wolf with hotdogs.”

“You looked so sad there waiting for someone to give you food. Why were you even there?”

“You see,” Will stands up and goes back to the en suite bathroom to wash the rag. “I do that sometimes as a, what do they call it? Social experiment? Yeah, something like that.”

Feeling less sore than he was 20 minutes ago, Nico turns to his side. “So instead of pretending to be homeless you just turn into a wolf, pretend to be a dog, and wait for someone to be kind to you?"

Will emerges from the bathroom. He clicks his tongue and gives him finger guns. "Exactly. But I don't pretend to be a dog. That's just you."

"Shut up, how did your previous experiences go?"

"I made this short, scary, suit-clad guy to be my friend then slept with him a year later. I'm hoping he wants to be my boyfriend though." He sits back on the bed and tucks a loose hair behind Nico's ears.

Nico bites his lip and flushes. "You're so fucking stupid." He says then plants his face back on the mattress. Will laughs loudly then kisses his arm.

"What do you say, Neeks?" Will whispers. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

Nico raises his head, still red in the face, and crawls to him. He rests his head on Will's lap. "Okay."

Will smiles down at him, bright and beautiful. "Sweet."

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what you think! come yell at me on 
> 
> tumblr: [haatorii](http://haatorii.tumblr.com/)  
> twitter: [@haatoriii](https://twitter.com/haatoriii) (three i's)
> 
> I'm unemployed again and I'm done with this so now I can focus on Waiting To Set It Right 😁😁😁
> 
> give it a kudos if you liked it 🥰


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